Oakland-based Outbid, a new website that blends the immediacy and pressure of a live auction with the social interaction of being on Facebook or Twitter, wants to outdo eBay (EBAY) with online auctions.

During the bidding, participants can listen to the auctioneer and send each other messages, and the auction itself has the competitiveness of a game.

“I logged on to the first auction to see what it was all about,” said Angela Trantham, a Martinez resident. “I instantly got caught up in the excitement. I love it.”

Trantham has bought slush mugs, an ice cream ball maker, a golf bag, a Callaway driver, a purse and a hammock. Her 11-year-old son won the auction on an Atari console.

“You can see who you are bidding against,” Trantham said. “You can see who really wants an item. The auctioneers get really riled up. You are bidding, the clock is running. You get caught up in it. This is a lot of fun.”

Outbid wants to make the online auction a dynamic process.

“It’s very fast,” said Outbid CEO Dan Granger. “It’s a social experience. The idea is the items will be gone in minutes or days.”

In the Outbid system, auctions are held at a specific date and time. It uses a countdown clock to force bidders to decide whether to one-up other participants.

The items that have been sold on the site or scheduled for future auctions are diverse — sunglasses, a hammock, a digital camera, an iPad, jewelry, handcrafted items, fresh bread, cookies, a pogo stick, shoes and an electric scooter.

Bids are often in increments of $1. But a participant can come in with a “monster bid” that can significantly raise the target for other bidders.

Each bidding session is orchestrated by an auctioneer. Outbid can provide auctioneers, or sellers can conduct the auction themselves.

“We are really trying to replicate the auction business but do it online,” said Bob Lee, Outbid’s chief product officer. “People can hold up virtual paddles to make their bids.”

During a recent session, the auctioneer hawked the wonders and quality of an electric dartboard set.

“C’mon people, this dartboard is unbelievable. Full arcade style. This is the real deal. This is the big kahuna. This is the red meat of arcade games. This is the meat and the potatoes,” the auctioneer said.

The bidding started at $28 and ended at $135 when the item was captured by a bidder named Amy.

Once that auction was over, the next one started within seconds, creating a feeling of urgency in the bidding.

“Adding real-time chat to anything will liven things up,” said Michael Tchong, a technology analyst and founder of San Francisco-based Social Revolution. “The immediacy is a good idea.”

Once they create a profile and log in, people can set up an auction, with Outbid guiding them through a step-by-step process.

Prospective sellers can set a date and time, offer single items or group them into a theme. Sellers also can choose a starting price and upload photos. That part of the process typically takes no more than five minutes.

“The first time I saw Outbid, I thought, ‘This is just another site,’ but then I started to look at it further, and I realized this is different,” said Edith Turco, a Phoenix resident.

Turco, who offers handcrafted items under the name Rha Designs, frequently sells her products on online sites eBay and Etsy. What makes Outbid auctions different for her is the live action and the social interaction.

Outbid provides the technology to let buyers and other participants hear the actual voices of the sellers and auctioneers. This way, a seller such as Turco doesn’t have to type out everything.

“It’s like being at a real auction,” Turco said. “There is more of a sense of urgency about this.”

Participants hear the auctioneer commenting about how the bidding is going. They also see a countdown clock in the form of a circle that shows how many seconds are left before a bid becomes the winning price. On the side of the screen, people can post comments about the bidding.

Outbid doesn’t charge buyers or sellers at present, although the current free model might be replaced in the future.

“We might create a premium model later on,” Granger said.

The premium model might enable subscribers to obtain preferable time periods or attend private auctions. Outbid also might eventually take a cut from each sale.

Outbid, which launched its site in late March, has arrived with some big-time backers.

The company is funded by Fairfield-based Copart, the dominant player in online auctions for vehicles. Over the year that ended in January, Copart earned $172 million and generated revenue of $906 million.

“This is modeled after the Copart platform, but it is for a consumer experience, rather than a business market,” Granger said. “It’s interactive, fun, social, and you add e-commerce to all that.”

Contact George Avalos at 925-977-8477. Follow him at twitter.com/george_avalos.

Online auction site OUTBID

How it works: Sellers can arrange to conduct auctions on the Internet at scheduled times and dates. Auctions replicate real-world bidding sessions, featuring a live auctioneer, interaction among participants, and auctions that can be completed within minutes or hours.Cost: Free. Premium subscriptions could appear later.Website: outbid.com